The Sour with the Sweets: Three Negative Things Born From the Internet

Not everything is always sunshine and rainbows. Invariably, with everything good that we create, there are people out there that warp it and turn it into something negative. Today, we take a look at three specific negative things that were borne from the internet.

Fake News

This is by far the highly unfortunate things to have ever been borne out of the internet. If you think back to the beginnings of the net, everyone was just so pleased that we could all get the information that we needed at the click of a button. Now, there are people who are actively trying to confuse and misinform their fellowmen.

Social media is one of the biggest mediums in which fake news is created and spread. Instead of contributing toward meaningful discourse, we now have to sift through misinformed individuals who do not even try to consider that their information is wrong. It seems that clinging to fake news (as long as it is in line with their beliefs) is more acceptable than facing the truth.

Trolls

Much like the bridge dwelling creatures of fantasy, this unfortunate result of the internet is something that you would rather not face. The internet has made everyone a bit more connected—however, it also granted the cloak of anonymity to those that use it for nefarious deeds. These individuals actively try to provoke, outright attack other users, and promote hate speech and vitriolic sentiments.

In order for all of us to understand each other, there must be a give and take. One must listen and one must speak—this is done in turns. Trolls are not interested in this. Instead, the more anger they can stir up, the happier they seem. There are now even professional trolls that are paid for their efforts to sow discontent in people using their words.

People as Product

With everything available online, it made more sense for companies and advertisers to direct their marketing campaigns directly unto people that would be more susceptible toward them. In a study conducted in 2015, researchers have found that once you click a particular ad or even do a particular search in a search engine, you can suddenly expect ads that are relevant to that search to start popping up all over your social media and other websites.

This is because our information is being harvested and sold to companies that would like to target us specifically for their services and products. Our information—what we are as a person—is now the actual product of major social media sites.

Therefore

We should all remain vigilant and be aware of how to combat the negativity. There has been too much unnecessary friction in our history as a species. Instead of fully helping each other reach our full potential, more and more people are more interested in getting the last word in. Or getting some sort of weird pleasure out of being “right” or making people withdraw from a conversation. The internet was made to share information—not to pollute facts.

Catergories

About Us

We are certainly glad to have you here with us. For many of us that did not exactly have technology growing up, it can be a rather perplexing topic to broach. The gadgets have only been getting smarter and smarter. It only follows that the threats are also getting more complex and sophisticated.